Shadow Puppet Performance

Written by YIAStaff on July 11th, 2011

First Graders in Ms. Duran and Ms. Jackson’s class at Willow Creek Academy studied the rainforest all year using a project-based learning approach. The culminating performance consisted of large murals, shadow puppets, and a rainforest musical!

Working with YIA Mentor Artist Brooke Toczylowski in art class the artists learned about plants and trees from the rainforest and created large murals that highlighted their discoveries about science and color mixing. See the previous blog post entitled How Can I Be a Scientist AND an Artist? to check out the process.

After an INSPIRING Teacher Professional Development with Daniel Barash, a shadow puppet master and the Director of the Shadow Puppet Workshop, the rainforest musical took on a shadow puppet form. Kids created shadow puppets out of simple materials and got excited about practicing their performance. For a packed house they sang songs and bounced their shadow puppets across the three stages.

Behind the Scenes Ms. Duran directs students using their shadow puppets and singing the musical

The set included three shadow puppet stages surrounding by the students’ rainforest murals